It was a day filled with fun activities, group bonding, prayers and service for the 9th graders at ILS.

Members of the ILS community planned out the perfect encounter day for the freshman to create meaningful friendships and further strengthen their connection with God. Not only that, but students played sports in the field and did fun activities inside of the gym. They also gathered up in a circle at the Retreat Center to have conversations with friends and get to know each other better.

Students started the day off with Mass. The Mass encouraged freshmen and sent out the message that love is important in countless ways and that keeping an open mind when it comes to friendships is important as well. The best part of these encounters is that phones are 100% not used, so people really get to bond and get to know each other much better, also allowing breaks from technology.

After Mass, students had ice breaker activities and followed up with reflection activities/questions with Sr. Katie. They were divided into groups and took time to create bags with items to help the community.

After interviewing some students, here’s what they had to say about their overall experience with the encounter.

“I really liked the questions part where we were all in a circle and Sister asked us to step up during certain questions because I think I got to see different perspectives of people. I also really liked recess,”, said freshman Paola Marin

“I enjoyed getting to know more people and doing fun activities in general was my favorite part of the encounter,” said freshman Sophia Andux.

In addition, freshman Paola Marin said, “We went to Mass and then had ice breaker activities in the beginning which were fun. Then we did some reflection activities and questions with Sr. Katie and then we went to eat and got split into different groups to make bags for those in need, talk with each other, and go out during recess.”

After talking to many freshman students throughout the day, it is evident that they had an immense amount of fun and enjoyed how everything was carried out thanks to the ILS campus ministry. Expect many more activities like this in the future! Go Royals!